Turks and Tea!

After China and India, the world's two most populous countries, Turkey is third in tea consumption in the world. However, Turkey consumes the most tea if theamount is measured in proportion to the population. Based on data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the average annual tea consumption per person worldwide is less than 1 kilogram, but in Turkey each person consumes an average of more than 3 kilograms of tea every year.

In China, an average of 1.6 million tons of tea per year is consumed, while India comes a close second with almost 1 million tons in consumption. Turkey ranks third with around 240,000 tons of tea consumption per year. When it comes to tea production, Turkey is the fifth country on the list of highest tea producers, at 220,000 tons per year. China remains at the top of the list of producers worldwide, with almost 2 million tons of tea produced, followed by India, Sri Lanka and Kenya.

Çaykur, a Turkish tea production company, accounts for 60 percent of the Turkish tea sector and sold almost 5,000 tons of tea to 54 countries last year. The company sells tea to dozens of countries, including Australia, Kosovo, Mongolia and Saudi Arabia.

A large amount of the tea produced in Turkey tea is cultivated on the country's Black Sea coast. Two months ago, a training initiative for professional tea testers began so that they could better promote traditional Turkish tea, the country's most popular beverage. This was part of a project by the Rize Commodity Exchange Market. The training, which is given by tea experts, includes theory and practice classes that instruct participants on key information regarding tea's color, aromatic features, and the appearance of processed tea and strong tea.

The turks obsession with tea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tulip-shaped tea glass is perhaps the most iconic shape in Turkish design, easily as indelible in the memory as one’s first glimpse of the skyline of Golden Horn. It imprints itself as something uniquely Turkish. And with good reason too. Turkish people drink more tea per capita than the British, 2.5 kg per Turk, versus 2.1 per Brit. Moreover, everyone in Turkey —from the most hardworking field labourers to the stately dwellers of yali (seaside mansions) —drinks Turkish Tea in much the same glass.

It is a universally appreciated drink which never goes out of season. It is so vital to everyday work in the Republic that many a business employs one person, a whose sole responsibility is to keep a piping hot supply of fresh tea on the go throughout the day.

Enjoyed several times a day by most Turks from their rising moments until bedtime, not a day goes by without tea, except, of course, during the holy month of fasting, Ramazan. Even after a long day when the observant have not let even a drop of water pass their lips reach first for a glass of piping hot tea when the sun sets, and the muezzin calls from the minarets, signalling Iftar (the breaking of the fast).

Yet despite its ubiquity, the brewing and drinking of çay is a modern tradition. Tea houses were not found in Istanbul until after about 1878 when the Adana governor of the time, Mehmet Izzet, published a document known as the Çay Rişalesi (Tea Pamphlet) detailing the health benefits of drinking tea.

While engaging some, Tea was slow to find the favour and acceptance of Turkish Coffee. It seems Tea began to capture the popular imagination only in the post-Ottoman period, when due to the loss of Yemen, coffee became a more expensive import, often sourced from as far away as South America, and as such became something of a luxury.

Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal, is said to have encouraged adoption of the drink. In 1924, the Government passed a law stating that tea, oranges, and filbert hazelnuts would be raised in Rize.

Yet it is widely stated that it was not until 1937 that the Government actively encouraged tea cultivation, when 20 tons of seeds were acquired from Batum in the Georgian Republic, and planted at the central green house in Rize, yielding 30 kilos of tea. Since then, Turkish Tea has also become widely cultivated around the Black Sea town, with its high slopes and heavy precipitation making it conducive to the plants.